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A Famous Crime, Kinda notorious, and active
I've been "sheltering in place" for the most part, here in the Bay Area, and dealing with the ennui and lassitudes, so Chapter 1, after viewing a TV special one evening about the JonBenet case, an unsolved mystery, began doin' research/investigatin' on the web.

2. Chapter 2, spend 6 hours a day for a month or so, reading articles about the case, how it's evolved, Persons of Interest, the conflict between the two major theories, though in the last 10 years or so, the Intruder theory seems much more probable.

3. Chapter 3. Listened to quite a few DNA lectures and forensic DNA talks on youtube and learned a bit about electropheragrams, CODIS, genetics, familial DNA, and os on.

4. Chapter 4. A song bubbled up, "JonBenet." Dunno if it's quite done, Mark's on vocal, due to no studios open near where I am, to do a vocal.

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Father Time

5/31/2020 7:40:25 PM

I've followed this case. Surely you came across the Katy Perry is Jon Benet conspiracy. I saw a doc that made a strong case it was her brother.

Personally I feel it was some sort of inside job. Here's my theory. Right after it happened, they interviewed the town Santa and his wife. Watching the thing on TV, for me the man sent off enormously bad vibes. Something was unhinged about him, the whole interview made me uncomfortable. I've never been able to find that interview anywhere after this but I think that guy did it.

I will check out your song at some point.

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Richard Scotti

5/31/2020 9:10:10 PM

So called "cold cases" always drive me nuts. They haunt us because there isn't a shred of closure. The case I will never get over is who killed JFK. I have read every book on the subject and seen every version of the Zapruder film and tons of rare footage of various statement made by Oswald and others. Over the years I've changed my mind many times as to what may have happened. One of most interesting theories I came across was that he was shot accidently by a secret service agent after Oswald's first shot. The agent was so startled by the first shot that he awkwardly drew his gone and it went off in a misdirected way. In all the confusion no one could have seen what happened and the CIA covered it up for obvious reasons. For years I thought maybe it was a gov't conspiracy. The I read the book, "Case Closed" and was convinced Oswald acted alone. Later I started believing it was the secret service agent. Now I just keep an open mind and maybe someday we'll know the truth. I know there are many other theories but I don't find most of them credible. It's the same thing with the Jon Benet case. It was either one or both parents, Santa, an intruder, her brother or....who knows? Not I. Very strange and horrifying cases.

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Steve April

5/31/2020 9:12:24 PM ---- Updated 5/31/2020 9:26:42 PM

Yes, Santa Claus = the McReynolds guy. He received much interest , especially early on, a worthy Person Of Interest, indeed.
Among the Interesting facts about this guy, who would play Santa at Christmas, for large groups of kids...
1. he was around the Ramsey family that Christmas, and was quite friendly with JonBenet and Burke, from prior Christmas gatherings.
2. JonBenet gave him a bottle of glitter , a few days before her murder. (the 1st child, he said later, who gave Santa a gift.)
3. Weirdly, his wife and he had a daughter, who was kidnapped when a child, along with her friend, who was assaulted. She was returned.
4. his wife wrote a screenplay about the kidnapping, (could not find a publisher).
Exculpatory (tending to prove innocence)
1. Was a U. of Colorado professor , with a good reputation.
2. Most importantly, submitted a DNA sample voluntarily on request by the D.A. and was cleared by the DNA. i.e. his DNA did not match the unknown male Suspect sample obtained from the crime scene and JonBenet's underwear.
Sigh!

Hi Richard,
Responding to your post, remember to this day the JFK assassination happenin', I was in 9th grade English class. The loudest scream I ever heard, from a girl in a classroom next door, a positive shriek! They carried her to the nurse's cryin' .

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Bryon Tosoff

5/31/2020 11:50:56 PM

Unsolved mystery and perhaps never will be, excellent song Steve, added to the eYe

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Steve April

6/1/2020 7:13:29 PM ---- Updated 6/1/2020 7:25:58 PM

Yes, unsolved mystery, and perhaps never will be, like you said there, Bryon.

Stranger characters pop up in this case, for their 15 minutes. There was the U. of Colorado student who had a bondage website, and a fetish for Barbie dolls. There was a bloodied barbie doll found on the Ramseys lawn, after the murder.
Oh boy! Anyway, his DNA was not a match.

Male stripper and also journalist. His girlfriend alerted police saying he had been absent during Christmas night (the night of the murder), and came back all dirty and disheveled, and raged at John Ramsey next day on the tv. His girlfrend was scared of him.

Then there was the gal who claimed she was abused as a child, by a sex ring, including friends of the Ramseys (but not the Ramseys). None of the details (dates and times) matched up. Her therapist hypnotized her, etc.
Handwriting experts...that a whole other part of the story...the Ransom Note...

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Bryon Tosoff

6/2/2020 2:22:55 PM

Talking about the ransom letter or note it was quite a lengthy one, and the money asked for was an odd amount $118,000 . So saying that, was it really about an extortion, that was considered as well from my recollection, perhaps then again was this note was an afterthought after the murder of JonBenet and pieced together and manufactured by others?

Why were the experts unable to decipher and handwriting? and, there were many involved and handwriting samples taken from the family members

The police did a poor job from the start though and were not careful enough with the investigation.

As for the murder of the girl, it was gruesome

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Steve April

6/2/2020 7:41:20 PM ---- Updated 6/2/2020 7:45:30 PM

Yes, Bryon, the police made major blunders from the start.

Boulder, Colorodao homicide squad consisted of police who had never worked on a homicide, the lead investigator was from narcotics. So, the mother called the police immediately after reading the first sentences in the Ransom Note (RN), December 26, '96, 5:30 a.m. or so and they swarmed over there, then waited about 8 hours, for a Ransom call that never came. Finally, the father, John Ramsey, began searching the house, and found his daughter's body in the basement.

The police immediately focus on the parents. Months later, Lou Smit was called in, a veteran detective and a bit of a legend, who had solved over 100 homicides in his career. After looking over the facts of the case, he concluded there was an Intruder. (The police hated him, and eventually fired him, because he was not part of their GroupThnk.)

Here's the Ransom Note. (not in original handwriting)

"Mr. Ramsey: Listen Carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We respect your business, but not the country it serves.

At this time, we have your daughter in our possession. She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter.

You will withdraw $118,000 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank.

When you get home, you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 a.m. tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence and earlier pickup of your daughter.

Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for a proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them.

Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as police or F.B.I. will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. If the money is in way marked or tampered with, she dies. You can try to deceive us, but be warned we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics.

You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to outsmart us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% of getting her back. You and your family are under constant scrutiny, as well as the authorities.

Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us, John. Use that good, Southern common sense of yours. It's up to you now John! Victory! S.B.T.C."

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Bryon Tosoff

6/3/2020 12:25:10 AM

as a side note, there were some journalists who observed that "S.B.T.C" is a reference to John Ramsey's naval training at the Subic Bay Training Center in the Philippines.

other info
Perhaps check out this link http://jonbenetramsey.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/136739241/Perfect_Murder_Perfect_Town_by_Lawrence_Schiller.pdf

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Steve April

6/3/2020 7:15:24 PM ---- Updated 6/3/2020 7:41:10 PM

My impression, that's a good book, well written and balanced all'n all, looks at various Persons of Interest f'sure. Thanks, Bryon.

The best hope for the JonBenet case seems to be advances in DNA technology and forensics, and a retesting of the genetic material by a company like Parabon.

They've solved over 50 cold cases in a few years. They (or a similar company, not sure) caught the notorious Golden State killer , a former cop!!!, with the SNP technique, and genetic genealogy, family trees, phenotyping, and ancestral data investigations.

Hoping...

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Bryon Tosoff

6/3/2020 9:26:08 PM

Stranger then fiction this whole scenario was. And all the various TV specials and people who have done books on it, now a song from you Steve. It is a twisted crazy upside down murder mystery and continues to be a unusual case with cryptic clues ,many suspects, media speculation and police faux pas which contributed to a mangled mess of an investigation. tangled web it is

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Steve April

6/4/2020 5:58:10 PM

Yah, a tangled web it is, Bryon...

It's often enough the charming ones...

The most charming among us e.g. Ted Bundy, a law student and Young Republican, may be a serial killer. A church president, and neighborhood security-watch guy may also be a psychopath e.g. Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, killed around 8-9 women, including girls.

Go figure...

Well, the DNA is pretty solid, given that there is Unknown Male saliva mingled with JonBenet's blood... (so far no hits in CODIS tho)...

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Shoe City Sound

6/4/2020 8:16:48 PM

Steve - the way your mind works haha - I wonder if people realized that your profile pic was of the Hilton Sisters for a while. You are a very interesting person as we all know - as well as a great song writer - well I guess one goes along with the other.

A true fan,
D

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Steve April

6/5/2020 4:31:49 PM ---- Updated 6/5/2020 7:28:57 PM

Dolores, good to hear from you. Appreciate your musicality and happenin' vibe, have added many of your songs to m'stations over the years. (yikes, the years!! lol)
Yes, the Hilton Sisters, who played saxophone , funny pix prob'ly due to collabros w Steve Ison at the time, we felt a bit like the twins in a way.
Hope you like my JonBenet song...
Here'a a DNA link, ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpPkmDeS3Dg

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Shoe City Sound

6/5/2020 9:40:19 PM

Totally love the JonBenet song of course! Just also commenting on your interest in some of life's most intriguing/sort of surreal personalities and situations. And of course so very appreciative of all stations you have added Shoe City Sound tunes to - always great to be in any line up of songs you have put together. I know - years ..... hmmmm

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Stoneman

6/6/2020 4:32:29 PM

Very good song Steve. I often wondered about this case also. Just can't figure out what really happened. But, somebody knows. Maybe some day the truth will be revealed and we'll all probably say: "Yeah, that's what I thought". Until; then speculation is rampant. I was always very uncomfortable with the pictures they showed of her. It appeared that they were dressing her like a grown up. Big "Red Flag" there. Anyway, great song Steve! You Rock! Stoneman

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Steve April

6/6/2020 6:54:24 PM ---- Updated 6/6/2020 7:09:08 PM

Thanks, Stoneman. Really appreciated. "On the San
Francisco Bay" gotta be among my fav songs on the site. Cheers!

Likewise, Dolores. ****

There are so many cultural inflection points in this case, like Patsy, the Mom, putting her daughter in pageants at the tender age of 6 years old, like Stoneman mentions. However, by all accounts, she liked to sing and dance, and was a natural. There's an amusing incident told by their housekeeper, when she exclaimed to JonBenet, "you have so many trophies," and JonBenet replies, "well, they're really my Moms."
There's much discussion about whether the DNA is that of the Perps? In my view, the idea (trope) that the DNA comes from a factory worker in Asia who touched the underwear casually, for example, does not hold water. The Unknown Male DNA is saliva, mixed with JonBenet's blood...

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Father Time

6/6/2020 7:52:48 PM

They are too dependent on DNA these days.

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Steve April

6/7/2020 7:42:10 PM ---- Updated 6/8/2020 8:56:18 PM

Wanna thank everyone who contributed to the thread.

au revoir for now, for JonBenet,

Steve

JonBenet

1. School proms, kids talk, your open ears,
all waiting for you, cruelly Mr. Shears
comes snip-snip-snipping, only a few short years
you stayed on the green earth, where you were born.
JonBenet, JonBenet,
Our universal child, JonBenet.

2. A bird sings on a bare branch, you’re there,
a rose blooms in the garden, you’re there,
where breezes call and rain falls from a star, you’re there,
you ask, ‘do roses know they have thorns?’
JonBenet, JonBenet,
Our universal child, JonBenet.

We’ll shout and shout “thank you”, wave our hands
and candles,
the thugs who did this to you are gonna pay and pay,
the kid’s gonna get you, my my hey hey, Mr. D.A., DNA...

3. New bike in the driveway, Christmas talk, getting grown,
your future bright, your destination unknown...
JonBenet, JonBenet,
Our universal child, JonBenet.
JonBenet, JonBenet,
Taken but not forgotten, JonBenet.

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